Troy Aikman walked off three Super Bowl fields with victories, and walked into the television broadcasting booth to become a top football analyst.

Now, it is another walk the Hall of Fame quarterback will make, on June 12 on UCLA’s campus, that is producing his latest bit of excitement.

More than 20 years after throwing his last pass for the Bruins, Aikman is fulfilling a promise he made to his mother by graduating from UCLA after recently completing course work to earn his bachelor’s degree in sociology.

“It always bugged me that I spent 4 1/2 years in college and had nothing to show for it, first and foremost,” said Aikman, a three-time Super Bowl winner with the Dallas Cowboys. “Second, from time to time, people would ask if I got my degree, and I hated not being able to say that I did.

“Third, I promised my mom I would do it, and I never liked the thought that I had not fulfilled that promise.”

Aikman will be introduced at halftime of Saturday’s basketball game against Notre Dame as the school recognizes him for being inducted into the National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame in December. It will be a rare appearance for Aikman at UCLA, although he remains heavily involved with the school.

He helps with fund-raising, offered input to athletic director Dan Guerrero during the football coaching search in 2007 and remains connected with his former coaches and teammates. He even endowed a scholarship.

UCLA wanted to honor Aikman during a football game, but his television duties made that impossible.

“I’m indebted to UCLA,” Aikman said. “I transferred in, and I feel like they took a chance on a guy who wasn’t one of their own, yet always treated me as though I was. I haven’t been able to have physical presence at the university because of my broadcasting and my NFL career. I’ve only made it to a couple of games, a couple of bowl games, and that’s disappointing to me, that I haven’t been able to go to more games.”

Aikman left UCLA two decades ago needing two classes to graduate.

With a stepdaughter at Michigan and two young daughters at home – and with Aikman being involved in charities and speaking to youth groups – the lack of a college degree gained more relevance.

“It feels good to be able to tell them that it’s important,” Aikman said. “Now, when they ask me if I got my degree I can say, ‘yes,’ and I don’t have to go into a great explanation why I don’t have it.”

Aikman, who transferred from Oklahoma, played for UCLA in 1987 and 1988. He completed 64.8 percent of his passes (the second-best percentage in school history) for 41 touchdowns (fifth-most in school history) and 17 interceptions, but there was also more to him than football.

“I think not having a degree was a very important loose end for him to tie up,” said Terry Donahue, Aikman’s coach at UCLA. “I’m telling you, it’s about completion for him. It’s an incomplete pass, if you will. Aikman’s all about completions, and he wants to wrap it up.”

Aikman planned to graduate immediately after his playing career, but football career kept taking precedent. He was two classes shy of graduation when the Dallas Cowboys selected him No. 1 overall in the 1989 draft. He actually signed before the draft, and was expected to report to Dallas immediately.

After his playing days, business ventures, family responsibilities and his job as an NFL analyst on Fox kept conflicting with potential classes.

“At various times, while I was playing, even after I got done playing, I was enrolled in a college and was set to start,” Aikman said. “But with my schedule, it was impossible to make class, or whatever it would be, then I would withdraw.

“There was always some obstacle, some hurdle, that just kept it from happening.”

UCLA associate athletic director Bobby Field was a Bruins assistant when Aikman was a player, and he recalled several times when Aikman spoke about his desire to complete his degree.

Field did some research, found a way for Aikman to clear previous obstacles and e-mailed him.

“Gosh, he got back to me within five minutes,” Field said. “He said ‘I would love to get my degree.’ “

Aikman took two upper-division sociology classes – one on race and ethnicity and the other on the sociology of aging – online.

“It was probably appropriate,” Aikman said. “I aged a great deal since I started this process, so I guess it’s only fitting that was the last class I took for college.”

And there is a reason why Aikman will walk at graduation.

“I think that would conclude the whole experience for me, and my mom. She wants to be there when I do it,” Aikman said. “I’m excited about that and I look forward to it. It feels good. I’ve been fortunate to be a part of some pretty special things, and this, as far as the list of achievements, if I were to write them down, this would be awfully high.

“Does it impact me as far as what I’m going to now go on and do for the rest of my life? No, but it just feels good to finally complete something that I’ve been putting off for a long time.”

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